This was originally compiled by the Reverend James W. Koons in 1997 and updated in 2004 and 2012.
Submitted by Donna Brooke.

In 1886, a small brick building on Calhoun Street near Williams was rented to serve as a parochial school for children who lived “south of the tracks” in an area known as “Irish Town”. When this was outgrown, the Owen home on Fairfield Avenue was taken over by Bishop Dwenger to provide four rooms for the increased number of pupils.

In 1891, while the church was under construction, Father Delaney built the first real parochial school at the corner of Webster and DeWald streets.

The Lyceum construction began in 1910 and this building included an 800-seat auditorium, a gymnasium, bowling alleys, and kitchen and music rooms. It was a place for many decades for shows, dances, plays, meeting and annual reunions and is still in use today.

More than 600 pupils were enrolled in the school in 1915 and Father Delaney was able to obtain four lots facing on Butler Street behind the Lyceum building. Construction of a magnificent new school was begun in 1917 and completed in September , 1918, with sixteen classrooms. There were 639 students in grades one through eight that year.